Month: April 2015

Our 17th wedding anniversary will be this Saturday. I can not believe it has been that long! We were married on the first Saturday in May seventeen years ago. I was looking at the calendar and realized that since our anniversary is on a Saturday, that the things that happened the previous week will fall on the same day of the week that they did back in 1998.

On the Tuesday before our wedding, my aunt was diagnosed with luekemia. My mom and aunts were going to prepare the food for the 400-plus people who were expected on that day. My aunt worked in a catering kitchen, and that was where were about to make about a million pans of lasagna. But, she was sick, and we got the news that day.

We found out that day she wouldn’t be out of the hospital for a long time. Treatment needed to start immediately.

As it was, Pat talked them into waiting until Saturday at 7:00 to start the Chemo. She wanted to at least attend the wedding, and she did.  She then returned to the hospital, and started treatment that evening.  We stopped by after the wedding for a visit.

It seems like it was another lifetime ago. So much has happened in these last seventeen years including her beating that cancer only to have another one kill her five years ago.
Seventeen years ago today. Everything changed. Every year as our anniversary approaches, I think of this day.
I thnk of the time we spent sitting in her hospital room making the wedding favors and rolling programs and tying each with navy ribbon. That was precious and scary time.

I am thankful for the twelve years she fought it off. I am thankful for the time she loved on our kids. She loved them and she was good to them.

It reminds me how precious the time is with my family now.

Our kids have two incredible sets of grandparents who adore them and do whatever they can to help.

Our kids get to enjoy my aunt and uncle that live nearby who treat them amazingly as well. They love them dearly, and I am so thankful for that.

Family is so important. It is important for children, but it is important for adults too. We need it. I need it. I love the
comfort that comes from knowing that they will be there if you fall apart. So this is my seventeenth year of being reminded of what is important.

Cherish the time. YOu just never know.
Life is a vapor!!!

I have heard that I am the most Type A, non-Type A person that  a person could ever known.

I prefer to think I am quirky. I like the things the way that they are supposed to be… but I am not like crazy OCD…  it is a weird mix of perfectionism and crazy.

One of the things that I tend to be… well…a little overboard about is laundry.  I like drawers and closets perfect even if the room around them is falling apart. (That is a whole other psychology post)  I can relax if the closet is clean and the drawers are orderly.  I like things folded a certain way and I am working hard on making all the kids learn the “RIGHT” way to fold things.

It has been a lesson in self control to not refold EVERYTHING that is folded by little hands.

This afternoon, one of my final requests upon leaving was that the girls get some laundry hung on the line and the boys get the kitchen cleaned up.  I was gone much longer than expected, but was pleased when I pulled up to see the britches blowing in the breeze.

Then I walked up.

Panic.  The boys laundry isn’t on the boys’ line…the girls’ laundry isn’t on the girls’ line… the pants aren’t held perfectly on the waist with evenly formed fold lines over the top.  Pot Holders… Jeans… socks!!!!!

Deep breaths…

But then we took it down, and you know what… IT DID NOT MATTER that they weren’t in MY order this time!  So, it didn’t come down in perfect order that makes sending it to different rooms faster, but it is DONE.  And I survived.

My kids still learned a lesson in working for your family, and I survived the haphazard placement of clothes on the line.

Housework done imperfectly really DOES still bless your family and I think that is a perfect lesson to teach my kids.

And this mom.